1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to determining the importance of a call from a caller to a call center and more specifically to computing an importance score for the call based on social network context.
2. Introduction
Contact centers provide customer service remotely to both potential and current customers of a business. Whereas classic contacts centers relied exclusively on telephones, resulting in the name ‘Call Centers,’ modern contact centers can connect with consumers using methods including voice calls, video calls, emails, social media messages, and instant messaging, while using equipment such as cell phones, smart phones, laptop computers, and desktop computers. The business expenses, efficiency, and perceived quality of service of a contact center can vary based on a level of service rendered to a caller. For example, providing a video link with a customer service representative based in the United States can be perceived as a higher quality than a telephone connection with a representative in a foreign country. In order to provide a service which best meets business goals, businesses can adjust the level of customer service provided according to the projected importance of a particular caller. This importance has been previously predicted using information such as caller identity and call topic.
Current, potential, or past customers contact a contact center via a voice call, video call, email, social media post, instant message, etc. Customers connecting to contact centers can use telephones, cell phones, smartphones, computers and any other device capable of communication. Contact centers can provide varying levels of service to calls made by callers depending on call importance. Classically, call importance has been based on either a call topic or a previous interaction between the call center and the customer, modeled as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data.
In order for proper implementation of CRM, the contact center must establish the identity of the caller. Caller identity can be determined by accessing databases storing previous call interactions, previous conversations/utterances, account setup information, web interface information, phone numbers, etc. In certain cases, these databases can be public. For example, if a user is calling from a telephone into a call center, the call center can identify the caller by accessing a public list of phone numbers. In other instances, the databases can be private. For example, the call center can maintain a database recording the phone numbers of previous callers linked to the identification the previous caller provided. Alternatively, the call center can access a database maintained privately by a third party. When the connection between the caller and the contact center is a type other than a telephone call, such as an Internet connection, the identity can be determined based on IP address information contained within specific transmission packets.